The Tax Collector: 4K UHD Steelbook Review
Writer/director David Ayer is a man seemingly obsessed with the Los Angeles gangster lifestyle as well as Los Angeles police. In just a couple of years, from 2001-2003 Ayer’s scrips for The Fast and the Furious, Training Day, Dark Blue and S.W.A.T. were turned into feature films, he then made his directorial debut with another L.A. set gangster film Hard Times and then followed that up with Street Kings and End of Watch. Even his fantasy films like Suicide Squad and Bright are filled with gangs and crime. Ayer’s latest gangster-centric offering, The Tax Collector arrives this week on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. The interesting thing about Ayer’s film is that even when they aren’t very good, they still manage to be entertaining. The Tax Collector could be his worst film to date, but I wasn’t bored for a single moment.
David Cuevas (Bobby Soto) is a family man. He loves his wife, his children, his sister and his mother. They are the most important thing in his life. Unfortunately, being a crime lord doesn’t always keep your family safe and David learns this the hard way when a rival gangster named Conejo (Jose Conejo Martin) steps up and tries to muscle in on David’s business. When David and his right-hand-man and best friend, Creeper (Shia LaBeouf) refuse to roll over, Conejo takes that as a sign a disrespect and decides to go to war. This leads to a whole lot of gunfire, pipe bombs and kidnapping. It also brings along many tired clichés.
There is not a single original moment in The Tax Collector. LaBeouf is entertaining here, but part of me felt like I should be offended by the character he is playing. Soto is also good at bringing some humanity to his character David. The problem is that the film is totally predictable. There are moments of horror-worthy gore as well. In one scene, a man’s face is pushed into the pavement from an open car door, while the car is in motion, ripping all the flesh off the side of his face. That is a pretty grotesque, yet kind of awesome moment for someone who digs the gore-factor.
The Tax Collector is a lesser film in the street gang crime drama genre, but Ayer and the cast at least keep things moving along and a decent pace. It’s also hard not to watch this film and not think about all those real tattoos LaBeouf got for the role. Even more so when we hardly see them.
By: Marc Ferman